A conventionally known induction heating cooker has a plurality of heating coils juxtaposed to one another below the top plate to heat the object to be heated such as a cooking pan.
As shown in FIG. 11, such a conventional induction heating cooker has a plurality of cooking coils 202a-d, 203, 204 with respect to a heating place 201 (that is, a region above the top plate 205 to place the object to be heated such as the pan thereon) (see, for example, Patent Document 1). This induction heating cooker 200 is provided with a pan-placement discriminant portion for detecting the state of the pan placed on the top plate 205 so as to confront the heating place 201 so that the heating coils to be used may be selected from among the plurality of heating coils 202a-d, 203, 204 based on a detection result of the pan-placement discriminant portion for subsequent heating of the pan.
Also, as shown in FIG. 12, another induction heating cooker 300 has some individual heating units (heating coils) juxtaposed to one another and each having a regular hexagonal shape (see, for example, Patent Document 2). In this induction heating cooker 300, the state of a pan 306 placed on the top plate 305 is detected and then a whole profile of a heating region 302 formed by the plurality of heating units 301 is illuminated to thereby display the activated heating units for a user.